Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience

Ron Faiola searches for an old-fashioned dining experience

Ron Faiola has become Wisconsin's legacy filmmaker.
His previous documentary, Fish Fry Night
Milwaukee, was a loving celebration of one of our city's favorite culinary
traditions. But while the fish fry seems to be thriving in the face of
globalization, the subject of his latest documentary is more embattled. In Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned
Experience, Faiola travels across the Badger State in search of that
certain dining experience familiar to every Wisconsin resident in the middle of
the last century. Nowadays, the supper club is a little like a classic
Thunderbird or a hi-fi stacked with vinyl LPs. It's a holdover from a past that
seemed more grounded in tangible things.

But first things first: What is a supper club? Many
of the owners interviewed by Faiola had trouble defining the term beyond
insisting that you'll know one when you see one. Some point out that a supper club
can only serve supper, not breakfast or lunch. It's not gourmet, but it's not
fast food—just a little slow and good. Most have existed for decades and many
have a retro vibe of one sort or another. They tend to serve familiar Upper
Midwest comfort food—steaks, chops and, yes, the Friday fish fry. However, time
has not stood entirely still. Beloit's Liberty Inn offers a unique shepherd's
pie with duck as well as beef and pork; Chippewa Falls' High Shores serves
alligator (unheard of in these parts until the '80s); and at Milwaukee's
Jackson Grill, Kobe beef has joined New York strip on the menu.

Historically, the supper club represented the
aspirations of the growing middle class for a touch of class. With the private
clubs of the wealthy out of reach and the blue-plate special all too familiar,
supper club patrons of the 1940s, '50s and '60s were looking for a dash of
affordable elegance, a touch of the high life. Those neon cocktail signs
promised relaxation after the workday. The food was well prepared, generously
portioned and reasonably priced—fancier than you could make at home, but not
too exotic or highfalutin.

One or two of the self-styled supper clubs Faiola
profiles fall short on elegance, but most provide an ambience refreshingly
different than the cookie-cutter atmospheres of the big chains. Some of the
rustic clubs along Wisconsin's many little lakes hang canoes from their rafters
or fill the walls with taxidermy. The Jackson Grill displays a colored-glass
collection. Some have maintained or cultivated a distinctly '40s-'50s feel and
one has even retained a rotary pay phone. All of the places Faiola has
discovered are family owned, and many have been in the same family for
generations. They tend to eschew plasma TVs tuned to sports in favor of leisurely
evenings of conversation. Alcohol flows liberally, but the whole family is
welcome.

Faiola's topic is endearing and he keeps the
narrative moving forward at a snappy pace. There is anxiety among some owners
that supper clubs will follow the carrier pigeon to extinction, but others have
linked their fortunes to rising trends, buying local produce, stocking craft
beers and going green. "Our challenge is to get the younger people to
experience this dining experience," one of them remarks.

And that may be Faiola's point. Supper clubs are for
hipsters of all ages. Support them, unless you want to live in a McWorld.

Wisconsin
Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience premieres 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. April
17 at the Times Cinema. Faiola will answer questions at each screening.

Ron's a very cool guy and what's really special about these movies is how he lets the people talk for themselves. These culinary traditions are part of what keeps us human in the face of corporate homogenization of just about everything. Bravo.

Wow! How refreshing to read this article. I "grew up" in that Supper Club generation. My parents took my sister and I with them and we enjoyed this environment a weekend or two a month. We lived in northwestern Illinois. The Indian Head Supper Club was our destination. My sister and I always got a Kiddie Cocktail with a plastic animal uniquely perched over the edge of the glass. I, too, remember the relish tray. My dad loved his pickled herring and my mother just enjoyed the night out of the kitchen. What wonderful memories. I have two teenage sons and occasionally we will stop at a local supper club.....I want them to experience it! There's something warm and welcoming about that "old" touch of high life.